Health care, racism, and opposing the President
It has become common for supporters of President
Obama's plan to socialize medical care in this country to maintain
that those of us who oppose such a measure are motivated, partly or
wholly, by racism. Former President Jimmy Carter has signed onto
this school of thought, as have the usual suspects such as the
Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Also climbing on board the
“Let's Smear the Opposition” bus have been any number of Senators
and Representatives, including Senate majority Leader Harry Reid and
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. This is playing the “race card”
on a grand scale and for those who believe that the Federal
government should no longer be bound by the Constitution it is a
convenient charge to make.
Making the charge that one's opponents are motivated by
racial hatred is particularly easy to make in America right now, in
spite of considerable evidence, such as the man who currently
occupies the Oval Office, that racism is a shadow of what it used to
be. Is it all gone, no, and more's the pity as the fact that it
still exists gives the Democratic charges just that tinge of
legitimacy that makes people think there might be something to it.
What it also does is act to absolve the advocates of socialism of
having to make real arguments in favor of their position that health
care is a right and that those who support that school of thought
have the right to use the coercive power of the State to enforce
their desires. You see, making the charge of racism in America today
has the effect of immediately changing the focus of the debate from
the merits of each sides' arguments to one in which the opponents are
forced to spend the majority of their time defending themselves from
the despicable charge.
This is one of the results of the growth of the cult of
political correctness in this country. Even though they may not
agree with the philosophy that one must never say anything which
might be offensive to someone else, most Americans have
subconsciously adopted that mode of speech and argument. It is
interesting to note that in this particular instance the first
principle of politically correct speech - “Thou shalt not speak any
offensive epithet lest thou should injure thine opponent's
self-esteem” - does not apply when making the charge of racism.
Yes, it's permissible for the left to level such a charge at those
whom they have discovered are not willing to simply allow the
juggernaut of an ever-larger Federal government to roll over them
unchecked. It is not, however, permissible to point out that in
making such a charge, one which I and I dare say most Americans feel
is outrageous, the backers of the Obama regime are themselves acting
in racist manner. But, that's rather beside the point – it merely
illustrates how, by making this unfounded indictment, the supporters
of President Obama are able to deflect the debate from the true point
at issue – that the President's plan to “reform” health care is
nothing less than a plan to socialize the health care system by
slowly driving out any remnants of the free market in this sector of
the economy.
Making the charge of racism simply demonstrates the
emptiness of the case for supporting the President's proposals. As
time goes on more details of the President's proposals have emerged
and it becomes obvious why President Obama tried to keep them murky
early on. The simple fact is that the proposed changes cannot be
paid for without both drastically curtailing the services provided by
Medicare, particularly those for the elderly, and increasing the
taxes that most Americans will pay. Unless the Obama regime is
willing to curtail spending on other social programs and so-called
“entitlements” the money is not there. This nation faces
deficits from now until forever because none of our so-called
“leaders” in Washington has had the political will to call a halt
to the continual expansion of spending on social programs –
programs which, by and large, lack any constitutional support. Our
nation is bankrupt, or would be if anyone dared to actually face the
facts of the matter. Yet the President insists that we stick our
heads further into the sand and allow him and his cronies to saddle
the populace with still more taxes. The sad thing is that, if the
level of Federal taxes were reduced, as they could be if Americans
insisted the government live within the law, the vast majority of
people could pay for their own health insurance. Bat that's another
admission that those in power dare not make because they realize that
to do so would be to call into doubt most of their actions over the
last half century.
So we're stuck with the absurd situation in which the
President and his supporters cannot make a reasonable case for the
proposed changes, but they dare not admit that. So they lower
themselves to the level of making ad hominem attacks on those who are
pointing out the many fallacies of their position. By doing so they
not only continue to add to the level of rancor, discord, and
distrust that pervades American political discourse but they lessen
the chances that anything good can come out of this discussion of the
problems of our health care system; and a serious discussion badly
needs to take place. However, calling their opponents names will not
move the debate forward and it threatens to destroy what little
decorum and rationality exists in what passes for political debate in
America. Shame on them, and shame on those of us who oppose the
President's plan for allowing ourselves to be distracted from the
real matter at hand – will the United States make an irrevocable
move into outright socialism or will we move the other way – back
towards the freedoms that this country was founded upon?